NBC Rolls Dice on Game-Changing Series for Fall

NBC has ordered a new series for this fall that Deadline.com calls "one of the most ambitious unscripted efforts ever attempted." The live competition series will feature a 12-day contest.

Called "The Million Second Quiz," the contest will last 1,000,000 seconds (or 11.57 days) and will be taped in a huge hourglass-shaped structure made of glass and located in the heart of Manhattan, the story says.

That will allow the contestants and the game play to be visible from the street. Four players who have stayed in the game the longest will live in the hourglass, and the quartet must play 24 hours a day, scheduling strategic breaks for sleep, the story says. The competition combines trivia knowledge with endurance.

In what NBC is calling “the first fully convergent television experience,” viewers can play along at home, and winners will be flown to New York to appear on the show in prime time. The eventual winner could receive a cash prize of up to $10 million, which Deadline says would be a record for a reality or game show.

Said NBC head of alternative Paul Telegdy: “It is a game, a social experiment, and a live interactive event all wrapped into a uniquely sticky entertainment experience. What is exceptional about ‘The Million Second Quiz’ is that it embraces technology’s ability to allow everyone in America to actively participate and compete in a way that has never been done.”